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| THE BEST WE’VE GOT |
| 2004-02-24 |
| OVER the coming weeks, a quarter of a million U.S. troops will move into or out of Iraq. The logistics of such a transfer would be formidable even under peaceful conditions in a country with Western-quality infrastructure. No other power in the world could do it in Iraq - or anywhere else. Our military is going to execute the mission with such skill that it won’t make headlines. There’ll be brief reports buried in the back pages of our newspapers and a few human interest stories on TV. But the only way this massive event will get onto the front page will be if terrorists pull off a stunt during the operation. They’ll try. There are no guarantees of safety where peace is still being made. And the terrorists desperately want to be the lead story at the top of the hour again. But even if a bomb or a missile takes American lives, the real story will remain how much our military can do - and how much our troops have accomplished over the past year. Recall how the pundits insisted that our troops were bound to fail, that Iraq was another Vietnam, a quagmire that would only worsen. Shamelessly, American ideologues who had been too good to serve in uniform themselves pretended that their only concern was the safety of our soldiers, who they wished to bring home immediately. Morale was going to break down, civilian "experts" insisted, our military would dissolve. It wasn’t just going to be Vietnam. It was going to be Oliver Stone’s Vietnam. Our soldiers’ response? They broke the back of the Ba’athist insurgency. They captured Saddam. That deck of cards? Saddam and the boys were playing on credit - and G.I. Joe called ’em. When our soldiers were attacked, they hit back with such ferocity, precision and determination that even hardline al Qaeda operatives in Iraq have admitted to the masters of terror that the U.S. Army cannot be dislodged. But our soldiers didn’t only fight. They built. The contractors with their snouts in the Iraqi trough have a mixed record, but our soldiers have been consistently effective - and economically efficient - in their own reconstruction efforts. And yes, damn it. Our soldiers did win hearts and minds. And they continue to do so. Terrorists rushed to Iraq, dreaming of a quick triumph that would send the Great Satan fleeing back to America’s shopping-mall Hell. Well, al Qaeda’s intelligence failure dwarfed any errors the CIA ever made. Far from discouraging anyone, the terrorists only stiffened the resolve of Iraq’s Kurds, Shi’as and even many Sunnis not to let foreign assassins shape their future. Operationally, the skills and fortitude of the American soldier quickly forced the terrorists to shift their efforts to targeting our allies - in an attempt to drive them from the Coalition - or to strike Iraqis committed to rebuilding and reclaiming their own country. That hasn’t worked, either. Iraq is moving forward. Our Coalition allies have shown admirable resolve - and adaptability. After a few early successes against our partners, recent terrorist attacks have failed. A sophisticated suicide bombing a few weeks ago didn’t even penetrate the Polish compound it targeted, but only killed civilians. Does anyone imagine that the terrorists are winning hearts and minds? Iraq remains a brutally dangerous place, a country that will struggle for years with its disastrous past. Progress will be imperfect. Success will be inconsistent. Disappointments will intoxicate the media. But, when all is said and done, Iraq is now the only major country in the Middle East with hope for a better future. Our soldiers created that hope. Far from the crude babykiller of campus legend, the American soldier has proved that he is as humane as he is competent, as creative as he is valorous, and as optimistic as the best traditions of his - or her - country. Our troops have tracked down war criminals, turned the tables on ambushers, faced countless roadside bombs - and built schools, created jobs, picked up garbage and set an example that even those Iraqis anxious for us to leave will not forget. The American soldier has an immeasurably greater impact than American bombs. For the soldiers themselves - including our superb Marines - conducting this massive "relief in place" in Iraq, the on-the-ground reality will often be frustrating. Especially to the soldier heading home, the complexities of such a huge transfer of forces will have a hurry-up-and-wait side that will draw out the enlisted man’s blackest reserves of humor. But the new troops will go in, the veterans will come home, intelligence and operational techniques will be handed off, the "newbies" will master the local environment and this great campaign for freedom will continue to march. Iraq is working. Attacks on our troops and American casualties are down. No Iraqis argue about whether the old regime should return - only about the rules for future statehood. A broken country is recovering from a generation of shock and misery. Their hopes may take a number of different directions, but the peoples of Iraq have hope. I only wish that those Americans so anxious to use our soldiers as political pawns in election campaigns actually knew our troops. Not as an abstract concept, but as people. The American soldier is a historical anomaly - not a grasping conqueror, but a man or woman of courage and good heart who wishes only to do what must be done, and then go home. Our troops are inspiring in ways that no campaign speech or campus rally will ever rival. They live the virtues - courage, patriotism, love of freedom, self-sacrifice, honor - of which their critics are embarrassed to speak. They have a wicked sense of humor. They’re exuberantly politically incorrect. They’re part of the most thoroughly integrated, representative American institution - our military. And when the American people and our leaders stand behind them, they can do any job on earth. Defying countless predictions of disaster, our soldiers have accomplished more in Iraq than we had any right to expect. And they did it not because of some brilliant master plan - there was none - but because they took a look at the bloody mess they inherited, rolled up their sleeves and went to work to fix it. They’re the best we’ve got. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #18 Bodyguard -- thank you, and please keep posting. Any details would be appreciated. |
| Posted by: closet neo-con 2004-2-24 7:44:22 PM |
| #17 Bodyguard -- thank you, and please keep posting. Any details would be appreciated. |
| Posted by: closet neo-con 2004-2-24 7:43:59 PM |
| #16 Hiryu, you aren't "more liberal", you're just a sensible fella like most everyone else here. I think Sistani is a master politican who knew just what levers to nudge on the elections issue. Fine with me, we can deal with a master politican without complaint. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-2-24 3:53:25 PM |
| #15 Slightly OT, but I just came home from a visit to Peterson AFB, here in Colorado Springs. During the little less than one hour I was on base, two C-17s, one C-141, and one C-5 landed, all bringing equipment back to Fort Carson from Iraq. What other nation could do that, and keep it up, hour after hour, for several WEEKS??? Makes goosebumps of pride break out all over my body... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-24 3:46:03 PM |
| #14 One can hope, I still see great potential for this to be a bigger uglier Somalia; not that this will be any fault of our people on the ground. No comparison. One thing that Saddam and the King before did was engender a pretty strong middle class merchant society (albeit scared shitless). You have a well educated, enterprise focused spawning democracy in a previously secular religious environment. Sure, Iran was that way before the Shah left but then we didn't have boots on the ground and a big financial, political and military commitment at risk. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2004-2-24 12:49:56 PM |
| #13 Hiryu, More like Midway than Somalia. Soryu don't remember June 4, 1942. We'll endlessly debate whether Iraq was the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end. But you feel free to worry about getting into Akagimire. Kagamire is the constant worry of the turtle afraid to stick out its neck. |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-2-24 12:48:24 PM |
| #12 Don't worry Fellers, as you know, I spent 8 1/2 months in Iraq and Kuwait, and the situation over there is pretty much opposite of what you see and hear from places such as |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2004-2-24 12:41:17 PM |
| #11 Somalia is the wrong analogy, historically the Somalia's never had a central government. Iraq has always had a central government. The analogy that comes to my mind is Haiti. If we give up too quickly and don't ensure democracy takes root Iraq might have a Haitian type crisis every decade or so. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-2-24 12:37:33 PM |
| #10 quigmire quigmire run run, ah a soldiers been killed, pull em all out of that quagmire.Seriously though the liberal lefties seem to have got every prediction of how this war would go completely wrong.They claimed there would be famine,disease,the whole middle east will turn into one big nuclear testing range,Iraq will be Vietnam,the skys gonna fall in,the list is truly endless. |
| Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-2-24 12:00:20 PM |
| #9 I see your point Hiryu. Don't worry there isn't a draft yet. You will be safe. |
| Posted by: dataman1 2004-2-24 11:57:22 AM |
| #8 I don't know if I'm among friends, as I'm more liberal then most of the people who post here, but I keep seeing stories about Sistani getting ready to call jihad(tm) if he doesn't get his way. This is even today in the at this English-language Turkish news site. The thing is this, I suspect that we're spread so thin on the ground that we really couldn't deal with a serious Shi'ite uprising, not without finishing off administration assumptions of doability. I also wouldn't put it past our good buddies in Tehran to screw with matters; assuming that Chalabi is not their shill all along. At the end of the day Iraq is a black box and we're flying blind so far as I'm concerned. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2004-2-24 11:30:53 AM |
| #7 Somalia??? What?? Are you on drugs? We had a full scale military invasion of Iraq. We are attempting to completely restructure their government. How..at this point ... can this become "like Somalia"???? Oh...I'm sorry..I guess what you really meant to say was "quagmire". My bad. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-24 11:28:08 AM |
| #6 Well, with Fort Carson to the south, Peterson AFB, NORAD, and Schreiver to the east, the Air Force Academy to the North, and Cheyenne Mountain to the west, anything that happens with our troops (especially those deployed from Ft. Carson or the Guard and Reserve components called up from Colorado) makes the front page of the Gazette. It's not the best paper in the world, but it's head and shoulders above the pink rags from Denver. No subscription required for their online version. Chuck Assay, a regular feature on the Editorial page, is perhaps the premier conservative cartoonist in the United States. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-24 11:22:30 AM |
| #5 Hiryu you are amoungst friends here and you can say what you really mean which I know is a bigger uglier United Nations. I know that Somalia is a code word for the UN. And the great triumph of the United nations is nothing is anybodies fault except of course if you happen to be a jew or work for Haliburton or Rupert Murdoch. blah blah etc. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-2-24 11:05:28 AM |
| #4 These young men and women are our best. I see them and then I see the slackassed, lazy, selfish people in this country tearing down everything that these soldiers have done in the name of electing a traitor to the Whitehouse. They disgust me and I truly believe disgust any Americans. John Fonda Kerry has done one thing though. He has managed to give our enemies comfort once again. (Must be habit-but a traitor to his unform understands how to do that very easily)That of course should bring great cheers from the left. I have a feeling this time though it isn't 1972 anymore boys. |
| Posted by: dataman1 2004-2-24 10:52:28 AM |
| #3 I still see great potential for this to be a bigger uglier Somalia Only if Kerry gets elected will it turn ugly... |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2004-2-24 10:43:52 AM |
| #2 I still see great potential for this to be a bigger uglier Somalia I don't. Its not even close. There was(is) no will to make something of Somalia by its people. The Iraqis have that motivation and conviction to move forward. It will take time a blood, but in the end Iraq will prosper. |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2004-2-24 10:37:23 AM |
| #1 One can hope, I still see great potential for this to be a bigger uglier Somalia; not that this will be any fault of our people on the ground. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2004-2-24 10:20:26 AM |